While illegally digging for Anasazi pots in a cliff dwelling, Hubie grasps a human hand. He was hoping for an artifact, not a handshake and is puzzled by his discovery. The Anasazi did not bury their dead in their living quarters. A more pressing problem confronts him when he hears his truck drive away from the plain above the cliff. The rope he was planning to use to return to the surface was attached to the truck's winch. After a bizarre escape from the cliff dwelling, he is convinced to return by his sidekick Susannah who suspects the body was not a mummy but a contemporary person. But when Hubie descends a second time with her help, what he discovers defies all logic. It takes Hubie, Susannah, a coyote and Billy the Kid to finally figure out who was dead and why.